My friend belongs to an underground clan in new york, though most of them do not think they are really vampires and it is roleplay, there are some that take it a bit further...as to what Vampirism entails, depends on what aspect your talking about, psychic, spiritual, sexual or sang...I always have found the sub in general fascinating, great topic KalebKellum, have you ever played the White Wolf game, has anyone else here played it?

I know this is an old topic, but there seems to be little on the subject.
I actually have a friend who is very involved in the vampire subculture. She spends her time interviewing the people in these clans for a book one day.

According to what she told me these vampire clans don't solely survive off the blood of others. It is a common misconception that in order to be a vampire, one must consume blood. In fact, the only thing you have to do to qualify as a vampire is to absorb energy of some sort from others. For some, this is blood, for others it is the energy people give off (i.e. creative, spiritual, emotional). This kind of energy is best explained in religions such as paganism, which believes that everything is connected by spiritual energy. You can obtain these energies in different ways. Some vampires absorb these energies form others, and use them as a source of life in themselves.

As for blood, some clans run off of an aristocratic system. Most of the hierarchy is divided up between the people with certain blood disorders. Anemic people are a common occurance in vampire culture. Since they don't have much blood they are seen as more royal. Certain blood disease or disorder is seen as more royal than others. For example, I have factor 5, which causes my blood to be thicker than most people's. Thus, I wouldn't fit anywhere in the hierarchiy of the Vampire subculture. However, my friend has a special blood disorder called spiritusanguine, I think. She was interviewing a clan in New York one time, and they told her that she would be considered a noble amungst their clan, because of her blood disorder.

As for turning to dust in the sun, or sleeping in coffins; These are all false images made up by the media. No actual vampire turns to dust in the sunlight. In fact, the only true method to kill a vampire is by cutting their heads off. Vampires can exist in the sun, and they can eat garlic. It's just that, well anemic people are more prone to disagreeing with sunlight and foods that are heavy in iron, such as Italian food (which is full of garlic). however they do fit the description of a vampire. Often times they are rather pale, and very thin. Back when these legends were born, being as thin as some anemics are was considered deadly, thus they looked undead to most people. Also, back in those times they didn't know if such diseases were contagious. If a person had little blood, it is safe to assume the old treatment for it would be to give them more. Thus, legends of pale undead people who drank blood and disliked italian food was born!